Thursday, January 1, 2015 The New Year Begins in Chiang Mai I awoke feeling good — it is the new year, and I am in Chiang Mai. It will be a good day! Started the day as usual, with a meditation at the foot of the large chedi at Wat Chedi Luang. While I have said this previously, I love this chedi. There may not be a much better way to start the day than […]
Tuesday evening, December 30, 2014 Arrival in Chiang Mai On arriving in Chiang Mai, waiting for luggage, and getting a taxi to the 3-Sis Guest House, I checked e-mail and phones, and found several urgent messages requesting some work be done that was considered business-critical. So I signed on and got the processes started. There were two separate set of processes needing my attention. A challenge arose with the internet provider. The 3-Sis has a […]
Tuesday, December 30 2014 Last Day in Bangkok Today is my last day in Bangkok. And the goal is to see the Vimanmek Palace, a former royal palace of King Rama V, and the world’s largest golden teakwood mansion. It was built in 1900, and after the current Grand Palace was built, became a storage facility for the royal household. In 1982, on the bicentennial of the founding of Bangkok, Her Majesty Queen Sirikit asked […]
Monday, December 29 Part 3: Wat Pho (the Reclining Buddha) Was Pho is a large complex of viharn (worship halls) and chedi (pagodas). Many of the viharn are not open to the public. The large crowds here are oppressive and tiring. This is the high tourist season, and it is always especially crowded before New Year’s Day. I fell into line with the crowds of tourists to see the reclining Buddha. Wat Pho is guarded by these […]
Monday, December 29 Part 2: Wat Benchamabophit (The Marble Temple) After Wat Arun and feeling the need to get a fresh camera battery (not sure why I left it in the hotel), the journey continued, across the river on the ferry, down the river on the boat, back to the hotel on the sky train. Replaced the camera battery (put the other in the charger), and set off in a taxi to see the Vimanmek Palace […]
Monday, December 29 Part 1: Wat Arun A favorite sentiment is well-said by the following, the last line in the book Up Country by Nelson DeMille: The journey home is never a direct route; it is, in fact, always circuitous, and somewhere along the way, we discover that the journey is more significant than the destination, and that the people we meet along the way will be the traveling companions of our memories forever. “The […]
First full day in Bangkok, Sunday, December 28, 2014. This is a high energy city! I am still tired from getting here, 20 hours of flying and losing 15 hours of time to the international date line. This is destined to be a low-key day with two goals: (1) get a SIM card and phone number for my Thai phone, and (2) visit the Jim Thompson House Museum. But first, breakfast. The breakfast buffet at […]
James the Intrepid Pilgrim 